Review by swalk - The Book of Lost Things

swalk 's review for:

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A quintessentially English, gothic fairy tale; but if you are expecting a lighthearted fable, this is certainly not it.

Set in 1939 during the war, David is just a 12 year-old boy, his mother is sadly dying. The terrible stress and trauma of this has lead to him trying to prevent her death, by performing tasks in a very obsessive manner and becoming withdrawn. After some time David begins to collapse when he is stressed or angry and his father takes him to see a doctor about it. As his mind spirals David begins hearing the words inside of books come to life, until one day he is consumed by another world entirely; A world filled with fairytale horrors, battles of good and evil, wolves, harpies, knights and a sinister crooked man.

This tale has truly magical world building and a fantastic mix of malevolent and virtuous characters, I loved the the humour of the dwarves and how the story was woven with messages of overcoming grief and a sense of self discovery and growth. Honestly I absolutely adored this book and I even shed a few tears towards the end. Truly excellent.

Nick Rawlingson was an amazing narrator, his character voicing was excellent and really made the audiobook immersive.

Content Warnings